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The Jazz place will be in the old Crossroads/Interludes coffee house under Lime Leaf. I hope this guy knows what he is doing as this looks like a shaky proposition at best to me. I'm not sure Spartans are ready to frequent a jazz club enough to keep it open.

As for the scarcity of folks downtown on Saturday night, I really have no answers at this point. I am sure Wild Wing will boost some traffic around the square like it used to, but I think it will be a lot of young traffic and nothing that will really help Justins or Lime Leaf or even Miyakos. Its possible the new Rockers Brewery will help, but at this point there will be no restaurant, only a tasting room.

Does anyone think a nice ice cream parlor downtown would help generate traffic? You ought to see Brusters at Hillcrest at any time of the day, its amazing. I think an old fashioned ice cream parlor would be a slam dunk!

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Now is not the right time for an ice cream shop. We need to get Wild Wing, Rockers, and some other establishments going first.

Regarding La Taverna, I've dined there twice and it's real diamond in the rough! Don't let the strip shopping center location keep you away. It's not an Olive Garden sort of place.

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The Jazz place will be in the old Crossroads/Interludes coffee house under Lime Leaf. I hope this guy knows what he is doing as this looks like a shaky proposition at best to me. I'm not sure Spartans are ready to frequent a jazz club enough to keep it open.

As for the scarcity of folks downtown on Saturday night, I really have no answers at this point. I am sure Wild Wing will boost some traffic around the square like it used to, but I think it will be a lot of young traffic and nothing that will really help Justins or Lime Leaf or even Miyakos. Its possible the new Rockers Brewery will help, but at this point there will be no restaurant, only a tasting room.

Does anyone think a nice ice cream parlor downtown would help generate traffic? You ought to see Brusters at Hillcrest at any time of the day, its amazing. I think an old fashioned ice cream parlor would be a slam dunk!

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Thanks for the updates!

I've also heard good things about La Taverna.

The Cuban restaurant (not sure what it's called) in the red brick house in Hillcrest is also pretty good from what I hear, and has reasonable prices. The owner is from Cuba and sounds like Rick Ricardo.

I'm glad that despite the recession and everything, Spartanburg is getting a wider variety of restaurants to choose from.

I am a big fan of the Cuban Cafe. I encourage everyone to check it out. It's very nice to have an authentic place like that in town!

Where exactly is La Taverna?

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The Jazz place will be in the old Crossroads/Interludes coffee house under Lime Leaf. I hope this guy knows what he is doing as this looks like a shaky proposition at best to me. I'm not sure Spartans are ready to frequent a jazz club enough to keep it open.

As for the scarcity of folks downtown on Saturday night, I really have no answers at this point. I am sure Wild Wing will boost some traffic around the square like it used to, but I think it will be a lot of young traffic and nothing that will really help Justins or Lime Leaf or even Miyakos. Its possible the new Rockers Brewery will help, but at this point there will be no restaurant, only a tasting room.

Does anyone think a nice ice cream parlor downtown would help generate traffic? You ought to see Brusters at Hillcrest at any time of the day, its amazing. I think an old fashioned ice cream parlor would be a slam dunk!

Does anyone know who the Jazz Club owner or manager will be?

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AS far as the coffee shops, each closed due to different reasons and not due to lack of business. I think one could go over very well.

Well in each instance, they said they were moving on to do something else, but the overriding factor was a lack of business. No one puts that kind of $$ into a business to open and then closes it before they have a chance to break even without having a lack of business.

I really think for a coffee house to succeed, location is even more critical. I don't think being close to downtown is key here. I think being closer to your customers is more important, because many are not able to drive. If I were going to open one, I would put it down in the same building as Mellow Mushroom and the Peddler or in that little strip across from Bob's Carwash or in the strip where Talbots and the Converse Deli are. That way Converse College is right there as well as all the kids from Converse Heights who could just walk over and walk home.

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Has the Escape section of the paper ever done a review of La Taverna? They really need to get the word out about that place.

I'm not sure, but if not then they really need to. That place is doing great business and a lot of it is word-of-mouth. I can tell you that word has spread very quickly among the Northerners and/or Italians in Spartanburg as I see a lot of people I know there every time I go. Plus lots of other people who just love the food. The food is by far the best Italian that you will find in the entire county.

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3) Downtown Saturday at 9 at night was like a ghost town. There was no one anywhere and you can really feel the loss of Abby's and the missing Wild Wing. Justins was almost empty as was the cigar bar and Delaneys. I know the recession is hurting things but it was pretty embarrasing.

I completely agree about the ghost town thing! My girlfriend and I decided to walk down Main St. from Converse St. to Church St. after Red White and Boom on Friday night to get to the car. It was a complete ghost town (except of course the stream of cars leaving the event). I have lived in Spartanburg for 20 years now and have really wanted Main St. downtown to become improved and vibrant, but it doesn't seem to ever be going in that direction.

I would be for a full-scale redevelopment of Main St. In the meantime, there are a few vacant store fronts mixed in with the boring old stores from the 1950's that are still there. I'd love to see an ice cream parlor like was talked about on this board in one of those! It might not be the best location right now as it is pretty desolate at night, but we need to start extending the action past Morgan Square heading down Main. Maybe another restaurant like Lime Leaf would work well too nearby, and with the new jazz club an ice-cream plate could be good too.

Edited by Rockburg
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Here are a couple of recent tidbits as the wife and I were out on the town both Friday & Saturday night.

4) It appears Rock Water Tavern may still be open. There were cars in the parking lot, lights on in and outside, and the for lease sign is down. I didn't go in, but something is going on over there.

I could swear that I read somewhere, maybe the SHJ or the weekly Sburg Journal, that another restaurant was going in where Rock Water Tavern was. Anybody hear about this?

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Rock Water Tavern is reopening as a sports bar.

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20090630/...as-a-sports-bar

I just read the article. I supported the first iteration of Rock Water and thought it was pretty nice. It really saddened me when the owner suddenly closed it. Although I typically don't go for sports bars I will give it a shot.

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Aha! I knew there was a sports bar going somewhere! I think that as a Sports Bar, RWT will do much better. Spartanburg desperately needs sports bars.

I would be for a full-scale redevelopment of Main St.

What does that mean to you? Can you elaborate? I'm always interested in what other people mean by "redevelopment" in this sense.

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I tried the 2 Morrows sandwich/bakery today and was not impressed. They have been open for a little over a week in the former Hub City Bakery location on Magnolia St. I had hoped they would offer a decent sandwich combo/ lunch box but all I got was cheap loaf bread tuna salad. They ask if I wanted white or wheat and charged a quarter extra for the sunbeam wheat. The sandwich had nothing else on it (salad and bread) no tomato, no lettuce etc. . I ask for one refill and the lady literally only filled the cup half full. I look for this one to close real soon.

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What does that mean to you? Can you elaborate? I'm always interested in what other people mean by "redevelopment" in this sense.

I haven't thought the whole thing through. I guess I would mean doing what Greenville did decades ago and choosing to make Main St. a "destination" for people and not just a functional street. I walked up and down Main St. the other day--there are some vacant street-level properties that I would love to see new businesses open up in. As for ambitious "redevelopment" I would consider offering buyouts of some of the older stores on Main St. that may not be frequented that often but are able to stay because they've been there for decades don't have the same overhead as other stores. I would just like to see more restaurants, more popular shopping options, coffee houses, bars, eateries, public spaces, etc. There are some areas on Main St. that can be made into small public parks too.

I have not studied the Downtown Master Plan--this may address some of what I have described. But I generally feal that there is a reluctance by folks on the Eastside/the "old money" community to move Spartanburg's downtown into looking more like a downtown Greenville. I say this as someone who has lived on the Westside for 20 years and also think of downtown as part of my city.

Edited by Rockburg
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Not only is RWT reopening as a sports bar, but a new restaurant is moving into the old Abbey's location... it will be called "Cornbread to Caviar"

Interestingly, they they a location on Main Street in Greenville. Hopefully some of our Greenville friends will stop by and let us know how it is. I'm assuming it will be good since they are opening a second location.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenville-S...82156888?ref=ts

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